Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-09-30
FUNERAL SERMON.
DeJiUered 0oer the Craze of
r. c.. F'Oc, by Rec. ". n. Hall
on September II, 1887.


Election, who derives his views simply
from the Word of God, what can be
more solemn than human life?
When we contemplate it in ITSELF in
the influence which it exerts, and in the
cast and a,cfM consequences resulting from
1t, it is clothed aotM tnexpressible solemnity.
Human life is most solemn on account
of its brevity. 1t is course which is
soon run. 1t is "a vapor" which is soon
exhaled. 1t is "a tale" that is soon
told. 1t is glass, the sands of which
soon descend and disappear. Thou, 0
God, hast made our days as hand
bredth, and our age is as nothing before
thee.
Human life is most solemn from its
uncertainty. We loce lJei We love
even the minutest delineations in the
features of life; and o, how we cling to
life and we love life the more because
death antagonizes life, and either with
sword or canker, with fire or flood, by
wasting disease or by the fell stroke of
unheralded accident, our life like lamp
is put out and all its delightful associa-
tions are severed-once and forever.
Life with us has been so brief indeed,
that we have scarcely had time to cast
about, to know what is about us, and
what is our relation to our surroundings
so brief and so busy have our lives
been, that we have not estimated half
the possibilities which lie within the
scope of our existence. Or have we.
perchance, learned that death with all
his combined forces cannot quench the
Undertakings of the soul with which
God, Himself, did, at the first, animate
us?
x Happy that man who learns from
Jesus, Master, the secret of right-living,
and who, on life's voyage, uses every
favoring gale 30 that death, like rest
full slumber, may come stealing over
him just as he is dropping anchor in
the safe harbor of Beulah Land.
Such life, of which this life forms
only the infantile years, is widely COM
prehensive. 1t is worth living for and
it has abundant compensation even for
those who give everything earthly, and
that is of the earth, for.
LIFE AND DEATH,
Mighty contrast of mightier subjects !!
What angel will give US tongue where
with to tell the world what they mean 2
Higher than the pinnacles of Paradise
would the glory of life shoot up, lower
than the depths of the dark pit would
the ignominy of earth sink down.
am glad, my dear friends, that while
you are contemplating these mighty
forces, / can announce to you with the
sanction of Almighty God, that life is
the stronger of the two-that the fiat of
the Eternal One has gone forth, and
only for time is death allowed to walk
the earth swapping here and there and
everywhere the threads of life that were
being woven into the most beautiful
fabrics of social and domestic bliss. Only
for time will his bow twang and his
arrows cleave the Shining mark" then
shall he be remanded to his own place
to 90 forth no more to fill the earth with
sorrow and crying. Then shall the light
the earth-the world and all Gods bes-
sed universe shall be Heaven, and all
who have been the loyal subjects of God
who have treasured the spark of the
Christ-life which God gave them, shall
fear deaths alarms, nor feel it's parting
sorrows.
These are the themes to which God
by his apostle calls our attention, to-
day, saying: stake We heed be care
full for the issue of your present life
must be in life inconceiyably more
important and UNNECESSARILY grander
than this, or its issue must be in the
common doom of death from which
there is no reprieve. Timely, then, is
the caution sounded in our ears to-day,
Take ye heed"
Life isn't solemn only on account of
its brevity; we could endure that
thought, but it is held in uncertainty.
Men say If / knew the measure of my.
days what it is, why certainly would
apply my most earnest thought to these
subjects-let that time come ten years
hence-fve years--one year--next We'd
nesday, or tomorrow at ten o'clock
will be ready Oh, friends, it is all I'M
certainty Nothing is certain, only,
that life is short. The hour in which
death will visit you is uncertain-that
hour is not recorded in any of the books
of the revelations of Gods will to man.
Our lives are just as huctuating as they
are transitory. Instead of anticipating
year, We may not confidently expect a
day we dare not boast of a month. In
an instant, in the twinkling Of an eve,
we too may be stricken down and pass
to the invisible and eternal world.
Take heed" what engagements are
to be discharged, and how are these en-
gagements perpetualy recurring
What labors are to be endured. What
difficulties are to be encountered, and
what sufierings are to be experienced.
Alas, how little we know, then still
more ought We to "Take heed, watch
and pray" since we know neither the
time Of our opportunity nor when the
time u.s."
Human life is most solemn from the
al MT ;,.L - Z.